Union, city challenge fire contract award

Union asks for deal to be tossed. City wants no-layoff clause removed.

August 14, 2012|By Scott Kraus, Of The Morning Call

The city of Allentown and its firefighters union have both appealed portions of a new four-year contract awarded by an arbitrator last month.

The firefighters union, Local 302 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, has challenged several provisions and asked the court to toss the whole agreement and reconvene the arbitration panel because of procedural errors.

"I think clearly the arbitrator's ruling exceeded his authority and scope," union President John Stribula said Tuesday.

The city has asked only that the court invalidate a provision that restores a required staffing minimum of 140 firefighters and prohibits layoffs and furloughs starting in 2015.

"The city is appealing a very narrow section of the award that reinstates terms that are clearly and undoubtedly illegal and violate established case law in these areas," said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in comments emailed to The Morning Call. "This was a product of the prior administration. If left unchanged, the city will be forced to deal with it in the next round of bargaining."

Pawlowski said it was unfortunate that the union decided to appeal the overall arbitration award, but that the city will operate under the assumption that it will be upheld.

City officials touted the arbitration panel's ruling in July, saying a section that limits overtime pay to 10 percent of the 12-month salary figure used to calculate retirees' pensions would prevent firefighters from exiting with huge pensions.

Forty-three firefighters left the force in 2011, and on average, overtime wages made up 40 percent of the salary figures used to calculate their pensions, said Karen Zangara of Cheiron, the city's pension fund actuary. Pensions for the 43 retirees ranged from $34,000 to $78,000 annually.

Cheiron estimates the city will have to pay a minimum of $4.1 million into the firefighters' pension fund in 2012 to keep the fund solvent, an amount that rises to $8.9 million in 2015 and peaks at $10.7 million in 2020. The 2011 retirements will increase the 2015 payment by about $1.5 million.

The new contract — which includes pay freezes for 2012 and 2013 and 3 percent increases for 2014 and 2015 — also requires firefighters who file for sick pay three times in a 12-month period to produce medical documentation, which the city says with help reduce overtime pay.

It ends the practice of allowing firefighters to purchase four years of pension eligibility in order to retire with 16 years of service rather than the standard 20 years. And it sets a minimum staffing level of 25 firefighters per shift — below the 30 included in the previous contract.

The firefighters' objections to the arbitration award are broad, ranging from the safety of residents and firefighters with a staffing level of 25 firefighters per shift to the city's ability to eliminate cost-of-living increases for current retirees.

"Let there be no mistake here: The [arbitrators], in issuing this mockery of a shift mandate, have negatively affected and impacted life safety and property preservation," Stribula wrote in a formal dissent to the arbitration award. "That was a nice way of putting it. The cold, hard reality is that someone will be injured and in a matter of time, someone will die as a result of this staffing standard."

The union has asked that the entire award be thrown out because of problems with the way the arbitration was conducted, including a decision by neutral arbitrator Richard Kasher to prevent the union from offering live testimony during arbitration.

The union is particularly unhappy with changes made to the benefits of firefighters hired before 2012, changes to sick leave policy and the elimination of a cost-of-living increase for retirees who left the force between 2005 and 2012.

The union contends that the new contract's requirement that firefighters provide medical evidence to support a third occasion of sick leave within a 12-month period violates the Third Class City Code, and that the city's Home Rule Charter prohibits the city from reducing the pension benefits of existing employees without the union's approval.

The city is unhappy with a provision in the contract that temporarily suspends — but in 2015 reinstates — a ban on layoffs and furloughs and a minimum department-wide staffing level. The city did not appeal the minimum shift staffing levels.

"The decision of whether to lay off or furlough personnel or the number of individuals to be employed in its fire department overall is a quintessential managerial prerogative," John P. McLaughlin, the city's attorney in the contract negotiations, wrote in the appeal.

The arbitration agreement remains in effect pending the outcome of the appeals.